Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
by frozenhands
Summary: "The people you love become ghosts inside of you and like this you keep them alive."
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **The title is from the song In the Pines by Jared Emerson-Johnson & Janel Drewis. I hope you enjoy. The pairing will be Violet/Clementine which will become apparent throughout the story. :) This is for all of you Violentine fans; this is the aftermath of the bomb.

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**_Where Did You Sleep Last Night?_**

_**Chapter 1**_

"Shit, the bomb! AJ!"

Clem darts towards AJ but instead is hurled against the ship. Her back goes numb with pain and the force knocks the breath out of her and all she sees is an explosion of red and white, her ears ringing as the bomb rips the boat into pieces and sends it catapulting underwater.

Her life flashes before her eyes as she grabs AJ, covering his body with her own, and plunges into the frigid water, both coughing at the water that assaults their airways.

AJ doesn't know how to swim.

Of all the things she taught him, he doesn't know how to swim.

She never needed to teach him.

The explosion sends a torrent of water surging over their heads. Clementine again has the breath knocked out of her as they are dragged deep underwater, down and down into the dark waters. She has a tight hold on AJ, clinging to him, never letting him go. _AJ, _her mind screams, _hold on. Hold on!_

His fingers are tight around her neck, digging into her skin, her arms wrapped around his torso and gripping his shirt. Her vision spins out of control as they are sent further underwater. Her lungs are screaming for oxygen. She struggles against the violent force pushing her back and just when she knows they're going to drown, the water finally settles.

She pushes her body upwards and drags AJ towards the light until they are above water. They both suck in a deep breath, the two coughing violently and gasping for oxygen as Clem presses AJ against her back and keeps them afloat.

"AJ," she coughs, when she could finally speak, "are you–" She can't finish, all of her energy going towards making it to shore.

In that moment of intense fight-or-flight, Clem didn't think of Violet, didn't think of Louis, Omar, Aasim, Tenn. Nothing but AJ.

She had been forced back into survival mode, and the only thing that mattered was AJ.

She's a mother by nurture rather than nature, every instinct in her screaming to protect him nonetheless, die for him if the need arose. And in that moment, there had been a need, and she covered her body over his own, trying to shelter him from the impact.

She thought they were going to die.

For a moment, she knew they were going to die.

Clung to AJ and waited for death to come.

Finally, after all the fighting…it would be over.

Her back is burning with pain from being thrown against the boat; her lungs are on fire.

The moment they make it to shore, Clementine lets the two of them collapse onto the ground, and she sobs, shoulders shaking violently, skin frozen.

She screams for Violet.

Violet. Louis. Aasim. Omar. Tenn. Anyone. Willy? Ruby? She doesn't know if she said the names or shouted them in her head.

She's so tired. Dragging her heavy body is the hardest thing she's ever had to do, her ears still ringing and her arms wrapping tight around AJ, trying to warm him. She cries, her chest burning.

His arms are around her neck and there they come. The walkers. The herd. One of the largest she's seen.

They'll have to walk through the herd.

The fight isn't over yet.

She retrieves her knife, purely on instinct, and driven by a force that's so much larger than her, she shoves the knife hard into the skull of the first walker that approaches.

She lets the blood spray onto her face, drops to the ground, and she knows what she has to do. She tears into the walker with her knife, rubbing its guts onto AJ's face, his torso, his back, and then her own. A walker comes down and grabs her, growling, and her ears begin popping; slowly she is regaining hearing.

She battles with the walker, shoving and pushing, and flipped the body onto the ground, sending her knife straight into its brain.

She is panting, her lungs gasping for relief.

The moment he's able, AJ pulls out his gun and shoots; one walker plummets to the ground, two, three, four, she loses count. He runs out of bullets. "Clem," he says, his voice strained and weak.

"Shh." She mumbles his name and shakes her head, digging into the walker's chest and rubbing more blood and guts onto AJ and herself.

Not yet, they aren't giving up. Not yet. They've made it this far.

Slowly she lurches forward, eyes frantically looking for a clearing while looking behind her into the water, hoping, begging whatever higher power might be out there in this shit of a world that someone else had made it out alive. AJ eyes her desperately wondering what to do, and she raises her eyebrows pointedly.

He copies her, staggering forward, walking like a monster. Being a monster.

A sense of foreboding seizes Clem's insides and won't let go, the space around her growing shaky and far away as she staggers forward.

If she fainted, AJ would die. He'd said as much. He won't live without her. He'd rather turn and exist as a walker with her, as if there could be anything but hunger vacating the empty shells of those monsters.

Her eyes fall shut before she pries them open again, pushes her heavy body forward. She must look really bad because AJ glances over at her like he isn't sure if she's alive or the walking dead.

"Clem," AJ panicks.

She turns and shakes her head at him, flashes him a look that only Clem would give. The real Clem. The alive Clem.

_No bites,_ she mouths.

She has to keep going, keep going for AJ, for anyone who is alive out there.

And she pushes forward, everything in her ready to collapse to the ground except for this single spark that moves her on.

She forces oxygen into her burning lungs, going towards the clearing that forms among the dead.

After what must be an hour of holding her body up, staggering, playing the part, keeping herself conscious, the school at last comes into sight and they lurch their way towards it, the sound of a gun shot piercing through her eardrums.

As they approach the school, hope assuages the terror as they see Ruby on lookout, one walker at a time going down. Tears are streaming from her face but she doesn't cry, makes no sound. Willy stands beside Ruby, both alive and fighting.

"Willy, they're alive! Hurry up!" Ruby screams.

"Get in here," he shouts, opening up the gates for them.

At the moment that she passes the threshold of the gates, Clementine feels her body thud to the ground before losing consciousness.

...

Coming to, she hears the sound of muffled voices mixed together. She remembers to breathe and slowly becomes aware that she's lying down on a bed. The school. She is inside the school, her eyes blinking open slowly, the pain in her body slamming against her as she opens her eyes.

AJ lies curled up on the bed across from her, Ruby sitting next to him.

"AJ, Ruby." She barely makes out the words. Then recognizes Willy's voice. "She's awake."

Panic rushes through her and the scene flickers before her, the bomb going off, her throwing herself at AJ, one last glance at Violet, hurling her and AJ's tired and injured bodies into the water, barely surviving, walking through the herd. AJ, Ruby, Willy, all alive. Dreamlike, she starts to throw her body forwards but Willy shakes his head. "No, Clem. AJ's fine."

"Clem," Ruby says. "You need to rest. We barely got you inside alive. The walkers closed in on us-"

Her glance quickly goes to AJ and she opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out.

"Clem," AJ says, shifting on the bed, his voice weak.

"You just lie down, AJ. We managed to fortify the gates," Ruby continues. "We're safe. For now."

Her eyes clear and her surroundings fill with color, taking shape. "Oh, god, AJ," she cries, pulling her body from the bed, ignoring Willy, ignoring Ruby. She rushes to his bed and wraps her arms around him in a tight embrace. He squeezes her neck and she kisses his cheek.

"Oh, you're alive," she cries. "You're okay. You're not bit?"

"No bites."

"I'm not bit?" she mumbles.

"No, you're not," Ruby says. "The fever's from an infection, we think from the walker guts. We've got some antibiotics for that. You both made it out alive. We don't know about anyone else yet. But your boy's okay. He just woke up a few minutes ago. You both passed out."

"Violet," she begins sobbing, her shoulders shaking as she squeezes AJ.

"Violet's strong, Clem," AJ murmurs, trying to comfort her.

Willy stands behind her with sadness on his face. "We don't know, Clem."

"But you need to rest," Ruby says.

"I don't want to," she bites out.

"Lie down at least, don't be stubborn. You've been through a lot."

She pulls her body underneath the covers and lies down beside AJ. He cradles her protectively and she wraps her arms around him, clinging to him.

"Clem. I thought you were dead."

She flashes back to the center of the herd, her vision going white and everything threatening to slip away. He had said her name and she shushed him immediately.

"No, I'm fine, AJ. We're both going to be fine."

"You looked like a monster," he says.

"Well, I was acting like one," she returns.

He nods. "You did a good job, Clem."

"You too, AJ. How do you feel?"

"Tired," he mumbles.

"Yeah, me too."

"Then the both of you need to go to sleep. Willy and I can hold down the fort like we've been doin'. You just need to get some shut eye."

"I already did. I can't sleep until I know…"_ Until I know who's alive._

"It'll be dark soon," Ruby says somberly. A moment of silence passes between all of them. "Clem, what…happened out there?"

"The bomb went off." She stares, her eyes glossed over, at the wall, her back turned towards Ruby as she pulls AJ closer against her. "We were all on the boat. I threw AJ into the water and we swam to shore. I don't know if anyone else made it," she says, her voice empty of emotion. Drained, just completely drained of energy.

"I'm guessin' it was a lot harder than it sounds by the look of you," Ruby says.

"I… I don't know how long we were underwater." She closes her eyes as the flashbacks come. "Two, maybe three minutes. It's…fuzzy."

"I'm sure. All right, just get some sleep, okay? I know…I know what you're gonna say, you don't wanna sleep, you want to look out for survivors. But Willy and I'll wake you up the second we find out anything."

She looks back at her for a moment without speaking. "Fine." She lets out a sigh. "Just don't let me sleep too long. Wake me up if you see anything. Let AJ sleep."

"But Clem-"

"Don't fight me on this, AJ."

He goes quiet, curled up in her arms and gives in. Ruby and Willy leave to give them some quiet and space, but Clem doesn't sleep. She lies there, shivering, in shock as the faces of her friends flashes through her mind. All she can do is hold AJ as he sleeps and let the images come. She tells herself to be stronger, but how can she be strong when her body and spirit are so weak, so worn down? Her back is screaming with pain, she believes cut and bruised. The death grip AJ had on her underwater left scratches and indents over her shoulders but she doesn't mind. The pain in her body, her head burning up, muscles bruised, limbs weak and body shivering with chills, doesn't compare to the pain inside her.

When she sees the sky drop to a deep blue outside, she anxiously and gently pulls her arms from AJ's sleeping form and leaves him, glancing back at him before walking out of the room. A hot flash hits her, beads of sweat forming on her brow, but she keeps going.

Her body is heavy but she doesn't care. Her friends could be out there, lost in the herd, being attacked by survivors of Delta; anything could have happened.

She ignored the flashing images of her friends burning to death and told herself no…no, that didn't happen.

But another part of her knows without having seen that some, if not all, of her friends are dead. There's no way the ones trapped inside the ship could have made it out alive, she thinks, and Violet; she vaguely glimpsed her dive into the ship, going back for their friends.

Clem fumbles through their stash of weapons and pulls out a gun, makes sure it's loaded and ready to go. She throws the door open and walks out towards Ruby and Willy who stand on lookout shooting walkers and she joins them, her legs feeling like jello. The herd is large and the dead keep coming in masses.

"What in the world are you doing, Clem?" Ruby asks.

"Fighting back. Because I have to," she says sternly without blinking, and pulled the trigger, watching the body drop to the ground.

No one dares to say anything after that.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: This chapter is Violet's perspective. Credit entirely goes to easilyabused because she wrote this. We are collaborating on this story and it is based on a Tumblr roleplay that we're doing together. Thank you for the follows and favorites! They are very appreciated.

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_**Where Did You Sleep Last Night?**_

_**Chapter 2: Violet**_

Violet tries to recount to herself, her ears ringing, what just happened. The sudden explosive heat, the fires, the fragmented remains of the floorboards of the deck splintering into her as she was thrown by the force of the bomb. She'd slowly risen in a daze, locking eyes with Clem, remembering how she'd pleadingly glanced at her before gathering AJ to her chest and jumping away from the fires burning all around them. Violet, wanting to join them and see them all to safety, knowing… clenching her eyes shut, shaking her head to herself. It was never a question in her mind. She can't leave… her friends to this. Omar… Aasim… _Louis_… a burning death, trapped alone in a cell… mutilated… without a friend. She'd made herself resolutely turn towards the door, tearing inside as she'd turned away from her girl and AJ, determined to save her friends… like she couldn't before.

Somehow she quickly makes her way down through the flames and the smoky air, lingering pain emanating from every point where she'd been hurtled against the ship's deck, waving the stinging smoke from her eyes. Trying not to think of if Clem and AJ had made it to shore… not able to think of if they didn't. Her head aching… her heart. Aching.

"Louis?" she calls as she descends, then more insistently, "Lou!" The fires blaze all around her and she watches her steps, never knowing what will fall from beneath her, pieces of the walls already burning down to ashes at her feet. Violet stops a moment below decks as the floor lists beneath her, looking around herself desperately. Knowing it's stupid, adrenaline pulsing thick in her blood, yet she asks to the emptiness around her… "Omar… Aasim…?" she coughs, pressing her wrist to her eyes… hating herself. "…Minnie?"

She finally reaches the prison and checks in on Louis, still curled in the corner against himself, making sounds she can't even describe. Horrible…? Choking…? Coughing… but alive. Thank God. She turns across the hall, pressing her hand to the door, checking on Omar and Aasim.

"Guys?" She releases the prison lock, the heat suddenly blaring against her face as she pulls the door open, settles down between them.

Aasim… is dead. She rolls his unmoving, ruined form towards her, staring into his unseeing eyes, still-warm blood slowly soaking her clothing. Closes his eyes as she shuts her own, sorry. So fucking sorry. The bomb… had been their idea. She sets him down, pressing her hand to his sticky, sickly still warm chest a second to say goodbye.

"Omar?" she thinks to ask, scuffles herself against the splintering wood, instinctively trying to lift him. Hoping against hope he's all right, immediately knowing… he isn't.

"Vi?" he asks, choking. "Hey, Violet…" She holds him against her chest, raising his head. "You… you've gotta go."

"What the fuck do you mean," she asks, fully the fuck in shock, unwilling to accept this as she draws him up towards her, "you're coming with us, just get up, please just…" again and again she tries to raise him but he collapses heavily, curling against the floor. It's then she notices the blood seeping ever more quickly, starting to pour from his chest, spurting, soaking against her into her hoodie.

"I'm sorry, Vi…" he chokes, curling onto his side away from her to… almost get comfortable. "I… wish I could… I can't."

He gently sets his head against the deck and Violet leans down, hugs Omar weakly against the floor, whispering the things racing through her head she can't quite process in that moment.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so fucking…"

"I'll kill them, Omar… I swear to you I'll fucking kill them,"

"Good… goodbye."

She aches inside, making herself stumble to get back up, the smoke gathering in her lungs reminding her that her time is running out. Violet resolutely turns herself back across the hall and throws the lock of the other cell up, wrenching the door open. Relieved, sort of, to see Louis still huddled in the corner of the room, curled up and softly sobbing to himself in the shadows thrown from the fires starting to spread. She's relieved he hasn't asphyxiated, burned before she could reach him, but also so… so fucking goddamned horrified, so sick inside… if these people aren't dead from the blast, she'll kill them, like she'd promised Omar. She'll fucking kill them for this. Every. Last. One.

Violet hurriedly lowers herself to kneel beside her friend. "Come on," she softly encourages, huddled beside Louis on the floor, trying to lift him up by the shoulders, "we gotta go, okay?" He resists, cradling his head against the flames and continuing to cry, but she somehow eventually manages to drag him to his feet. That done, he… vacantly locks eyes with her… nothing behind them, nothing of the goofy, happy dude she'd considered a brother all these years. Then he raises his hand to point… to the door. Violet's heart fucking sinks. She knows. He's telling her to save herself the only way he's able to, and… leave him. To burn to death, suffocate, still huddled in the corner…

Like fuck she will let that happen.

"We've gotta get out of here, you and me," she insists, setting her hands squarely on his shoulders, shaking Louis a little harder than she intends but needing to get through to him. "I want you alive, all right?" She can only imagine how severely he's traumatized, how he must be so fucking terrified, but their eyes meet and after what feels like a century or five, the walls slowly beginning to catch fire and crumble around them… he lowers his head and nods, moving to crush her shoulders for a hug. "We're gonna be okay," she murmurs with a cough or two into his shoulder, "but we have to go. Now. Work with me." Violet lets herself take comfort in her friend's arms wrapped around her shoulders after so long, after seemingly endless days and restless, eerily quiet nights being so scared she'd never see him again, allowing themselves a moment despite the severity of the situation, rocking him back. Despite the bits of smoldering wood flecking all around them, the thickening smoke, the embers lowly threatening to engulf them.

As they get out of the cell, Violet knows… he sees them. Aasim and Omar, respectively dead and dying against the blistering floorboards. Louis chokes, murmurs… muffled… shudderingly screams? The fresh blood sputters from the corners of his lips and not knowing what else to do, Violet shields him against it, pressing the flaking dried and drying blood from his mouth against her shoulder, drawing him towards the door to the deck. "There's nothing we can do," she makes herself admit, trying to be numb, not entirely succeeding as she… can't help but glance back to the open door of the blazing, blood-drenched cell. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I couldn't… I'm sorry." Sorry for him, sorry for them… sorry for herself, not knowing how she's going to explain it to the group… at home.

They quickly make their way through the halls, Violet leading her friend by the hand, stopping at times to raise him from the floor after he falls, nestling his forehead against the floor, appearing to give up. "I swear to God," she exhales, hauling Louis up with all her strength, then moving them both along, "I'm not losing you. I am _not_ losing you again."

The fires intensify all around them as the ship lowers ablaze into the water, jarringly sinking, every crackling floorboard a portent of the end. Violet drags Louis along with her upwards towards the upper deck, determined to get them out alive. She… has to see Clem and AJ again, hold her… her girlfriend, to her, teach the kid a few new swears when she's not looking. She has to keep Lou safe, help him eat, learn how to communicate, listen to every goddamned song he wants to play, even if it's Yankee Doodle or Heart and Soul. Even… Oh My Darlin' Clementine, like he had done before. Violet isn't sure what to feel, in that moment hoping to Christ he gets to play it for them, darkly aware of how in the song… Clementine drowns.

When they finally reach the deck, the boat is burning. Entirely on fire all around them, scraps of lumber falling around their feet, turning to ash as they step over what remains. Violet swallows, resolves herself. "We're gonna have to jump," she realizes aloud, "and swim. Can you swim a bit?" She turns to Louis and he solemnly… sighs? They're getting somewhere, even if he's sniffling. "Let's go. Grab my hand."

And so on three they jump, hand in hand, into whatever the river has to offer them. Dark water crashing all around them, Violet choking against the current, chilled to the bone, and despite her best efforts, her head going under.

It's terrifying, Violet never having been a particularly good swimmer, and having to make sure she brings Louis along with her, clenching his knuckles white between her own. It's like a bad dream - her head bobbing up above the water for a gasping breath before being plunged down again, the terror of being unable to breathe running static through her blood. She wrenches her hand against Louis' to keep hold, struggling to bring them both above water as best she can, move them towards land. Determined to save him, to save herself, pumping her legs against the water despite the burning terror in her lungs and somehow gradually drawing them closer to the shore. Being plunged down again and again, Violet almost accepting it… if she has to die, at least she's with Louis. At least he isn't alone. At least he has someone to die with him, after their failure to protect him before. She closes her eyes, her vision just as dark as before. At least her eyes don't sting anymore.

Somehow cast onto the banks of the river, she leans her head against the soil and sand, coughing violently, Louis' hand still clenched in hers as she pukes up brackish water. As she catches her breath, she raises her eyes… masses of walkers descending. Violet breathlessly forces herself to get up, grasps for her cleaver, staggering as she steps between one and Louis, quickly dispatches it, remembering on the spot James' trick to move through herds. Not even thinking as she rips the walker's chest open with her meat cleaver and quickly rubs the remains over herself, before turning to Louis and doing the same for him. Automatic.

She checks their surroundings before looking back to Louis, him chokingly crying, and she holds him instinctively, presses him against her to offer what comfort she can, the walker guts sickly squishing between their bodies. Covering them both. "We…" She half chokes, "we gotta go… but Lou, I promise," she holds him tighter, lets him weep quietly into her shoulder a moment as the river laps quietly against their feet, sand slowly sinking beneath them. "We're going home. I'm going to bring you home."

Violet swallows as she embraces him, daring to close her eyes a moment, remembering after the fear and the burning heat, hoping to God… hoping to fucking God that Clem and AJ made it out. That they'll be there.

"Walk slowly," she instructs, "…weird, like they do. I'll be with you… we're almost home."


End file.
